Board of Deacons (“BoD”) Meeting Minutes

August 27, 2016

1. In Attendance:

1. Attendees: Pastor Caleb Chang (Senior Pastor), Joshua Chang, Christopher Cheng (Secretary), Chun-Yi Hu, Lance Pan (Treasurer), Beata Shih, Jimin Xiong, Xin-Wen Wang, Haiguo Wu (Head Deacon), Tuanfeng Zhang, Shanchuan Zhao
2. Invitees: BoE members: Ke-chieh Chu
3. Absentees: Phil Sailer, Jian Zhang

2. Location: Conference room, church office building.

3. Meeting Agenda & Minutes

1. Meeting started at 9:05 am.  Deacon Haiguo Wu opened in prayer.
2. Brief sharing

1. Deacon Chris shared briefly about his decision to leave his job and pursue full-time cross-cultural ministry by first pursuing a degree in seminary starting this fall.

3. Senior Pastor Sharing and Update (Pastor Caleb Chang)

1. All short term missions teams are safely back with fruitful results.
2. Please pray for incoming and outgoing college freshmen.
3. Rev. Eric Yang’s memorial service was held on August 20 and was very uplifting.

1. In the absence of English Ministry pastors who have retired or were on a short term trip, English Ministry was not properly informed.  In the future, the church will consider sending out announcements of this magnitude to the entire church.

4. Church calendar

1. September 17 is the next church council meeting.
2. September 23-25 is the Fall Mandarin Gospel Meeting with six sessions by Dr. William Ho.
3. October 16 is the church’s 47th anniversary.
4. November 13 is the Missions and Social Concerns Conference with speaker Todd Engelson.
5. August 28 will be a Sunday of celebration:

1. Fire drill at 10:50am
2. Bible quiz promotion at 151 (12:15p-1:25p)
3. 131st baptism (1:30p-2:30p): 13 Chinese Ministry adults
4. Pastor Sandy’s farewell party in the chapel and a baptism “birthday party” at 302.

5. Pastoral searches

1. Minister Stanley Chang has answered our call to be our next Youth Pastor starting October 14.  Please pray for their relocation and transition of the Youth Ministry.
2. The English pastoral search committee continues to interview potential candidates.  Patience, faith, and prayers are required as we trust in God’s timing.

6. Pastor Caleb believes that Metro-south needs a larger church building than is currently designed.  City Outreach Ministry also may need a building project in the future.  The church should consider what steps of faith, hope, and love can be taken to support these projects.

4. Board of Elders (“BoE”) Sharing (Elder Ke-chieh Chu)

1. The Board of Elders has tentatively scheduled review of the Chinese Ministry worship team (November)  and English ministry (December).
2. The church council meeting in September will discuss the church building expansion requirements document review and approval in addition to the usual church council reports.
3. Church building expansion Phase I, Part 2 update: A contractor has been hired to help design the exit path from the upper parking lot to the 151 driveway.  The drawings should be complete in the next 2-3 weeks.  It is possible that the cost of this phase will exceed the original budget, but the church has sufficient funds and the committee will seek to keep costs under control.
4. The Board of Elders candidates has been submitted to the church council secretary and will be posted in the next week.
5. The Youth pastor search committee has completed their task with Minister Stanley Chang accepting the Youth pastor position.
6. The Board of Elders approved a new policy regarding elder and deacon participation in the event of physical relocation where they can no longer actively participate in Sunday worship and/or perform their service.
7. The Board of Elders discussed the process for creating the church mission statement.
8. The Board of Elders drafted a statement regarding the church not endorsing any political position, because the focus of the church is worship.
9. For more information, please refer to the August Board of Elders minutes.

5. Financial Report (Lance Pan)

10. The numbers above are preliminary and have not yet been reconciled by the finance committee.  Due to the unfinished year-end reconciliation, cumulative balances for non-general funds are not available.  (The general fund balance is zero at the start of every fiscal year.)
11. General Fund budget summary - up to July 31, total expense is $102,332 (5.6% of total annual budget), and total offering is $144,776 (8.0% of budget).  The targeted percentage is 8.3% (1 month complete in the fiscal year).

6. Stewardship update (Haiguo Wu for Jian Zhang)

1. Property projects

1. A circular driveway final draft has been created that will connect with the 151 driveway between the church office building and 151.  The new driveway would be the exit from the upper parking lot.
2. The middle stone staircase between the church office and the carriage house parking lot has been closed and covered up.  It became inaccessible when the carriage house parking lot was widened.
3. The aerial RCN cable has been moved into an underground conduit to enable new potential parking in the area between the 151 driveway and the church office.
4. A new HVAC system with new units for the main building (except for the third floor) is in design.
5. Worn faucets in main building bathroom have been replaced.

2. Property maintenance

1. Church office front stairs were repaired.
2. Church telephone system was replaced, working in conjunction with the IT committee.  Training for the new system is in process.
3. Ordered office and stewardship supplies.
4. Installed new air conditioner.

7. Capital Request (Joshua Chang)

1. The sanctuary mixer recently stopped working.  The church is temporarily using the chapel mixer, but needs to find a replacement.  The English ministry worship team (with communication with the Chinese ministry co-workers) have created a proposal and capital request to replace the old sanctuary mixer with a new digital mixer.
2. Deacon Shanchuan Zhao motioned to approve the Sanctuary A/V 2016 capital request for up to $15,600.  Deacon Beata Shih seconded.  The motion passed unanimously.

8. Technology update (Joshua Chang)

1. The sanctuary A/V system has had recent issues primarily due to user error after changes to the system (e.g. switches being turned off or incorrect connections between devices).  The IT committee has documented system connections and trained powerpoint teams to prevent this in the future.
2. The board discussed the problem of people changing the A/V system configuration and creating problems for the subsequent Sunday, especially during special events.  One proposal is to move the powerpoint control back to the sound booth (leaving the sound engineering where it is).
3. Wiring in the chapel will be replaced sometime in September to enable higher quality video.
4. After discussing with the finance committee and membership committees, the committee will no longer pursue a unified database due to differing ministry requirements.
5. The IT committee will work to train both worship services to use the high definition video recording platform.  Once both worship services are using this, the church can investigate options into streaming video online.
6. It was noted that the church phone system cycles between recordings if the user presses 0 (and doesn’t transfer to a live person).  Deacon Josh will investigate.

9. MetroSouth building project support / CBE needs (Haiguo Wu)

1. Deacon Phil has not had time to collate church building expansion requirements and is seeking assistance from other deacons.  Deacon Chris or Deacon Josh will help.
2. There is a meeting with Metro-south this afternoon to discuss how the mother church will support their building project.

10. Deacon Xinwen closed in prayer and Deacon Haiguo adjourned the meeting at 11:51am.